600
Patriarchs and Prophets
little less than a madman. Justice was perverted, and order was turned
to confusion.
[664]
It was when the nation was racked with internal strife, when the
calm, God-fearing counsel of Samuel seemed to be most needed, that
God gave His aged servant rest. Bitter were the reflections of the
people as they looked upon his quiet resting place, and remembered
their folly in rejecting him as their ruler; for he had had so close a
connection with Heaven that he seemed to bind all Israel to the throne
of Jehovah. It was Samuel who had taught them to love and obey God;
but now that he was dead, the people felt that they were left to the
mercies of a king who was joined to Satan, and who would divorce the
people from God and heaven.
David could not be present at the burial of Samuel, but he mourned
for him as deeply and tenderly as a faithful son could mourn for a
devoted father. He knew that Samuel’s death had broken another bond
of restraint from the actions of Saul, and he felt less secure than when
the prophet lived. While the attention of Saul was engaged in mourning
for the death of Samuel, David took the opportunity to seek a place of
greater security; so he fled to the wilderness of Paran. It was here that
he composed the one hundred and twentieth and twenty-first psalms.
In these desolate wilds, realizing that the prophet was dead, and the
king was his enemy, he sang:
“My help cometh from the Lord,
Which made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved:
He that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, He that keepeth Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep....
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil:
He shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy
coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.”
Psalm 121:2-8
.
While David and his men were in the wilderness of Paran, they
protected from the depredations of marauders the flocks and herds of